7-28-05 (Part 7) Armond White on Jay Z "99 Problems"

Get the latest Flash player

1Wowza
December 18, 2007

July 28, 2005 (Part 7) CRITIC Armond White "MUSIC TO MY EYES" Music Video Presentation at Lincoln Center. American Gangster? Gangsta? Artist: Jay Z Song: "99 Problems" Director: Mark Romanek Du...

July 28, 2005 (Part 7)
CRITIC Armond White "MUSIC TO MY EYES" Music Video Presentation at Lincoln Center.

American Gangster? Gangsta?

Artist: Jay Z
Song: "99 Problems"
Director: Mark Romanek

Due to low camcorder battery energy, I didn't videotape the entire music video. I focused on Armond White's comments.

http://www.markromanek.com/press/nypr...

Here are some Armond White quotes on the music video (from his extended essay on the 99 Problems music video)...

"hiphop hit a brick wall at its most influential moment with booty-clapping, money-tossing imagery and lurid, greed-driven lyrical content. but filmmaker mark romanek and jay-z have finally broken through this ethical stagnation with the new music video 99 problems. it's a strong, strangely beautiful fiction that subverts hiphop cliche and achieves a streetwise definition of new york city that film and music fans have been waiting to see updated since mean streets..."

"...in stevie wonder's 1973 "living for the city," a tourist famously (and naively) exclaimed "new york! just like i pictured it!" ironically, romanek proves that in the hiphop era most people's idea of new york comes from videos (and movies) that dishonestly construct a stereotypical new york of loiterers, thugs and reprobates. black and white film gives it a documentary effect, as if casting an anthropological eye on graffiti, tenements, break-dancers and flashy cars. the stylized look distances ghetto life, but romanek's structure shifts from borough to borough, playground to jailhouse—a series of interlocking actions from a crazy-quilt travelogue of new york city. 99 problems shows a young black man's new york as it has never been seen before. jay-z spins a tale of common aimlessness and selfish survival ("ya havin' girl problems?/i feel bad for you, son/i got 99 problems/and a bitch ain't one"). his delivery is terse yet eloquent—swingsong, but the world he walks through is ferocious..."

"...no rap fan watching 99 problems would sensibly long to partake in its spectacle. the jail scenes (with frontal nudity of inmates being sprayed for lice) are controversial, restricting the video's airplay even on cable outlets. this is a tribute to romanek's visual intensity. he has an iconographic gift to make commonplace things memorable or (as in hurt for johnny cash) numinous. in 99 problems, images and words become a wrecking ball against the familiar edifice of ghetto-fabulous determinism. 99 problems breaks through the nyc truisms of poverty and deprivation that hiphop culture has romanticized. romanek sees the place clearer, tougher and poetically. the cliches will no longer stand."

"every other music video director will have to face up to this and respond. romanek's esthetics are informed by a rare social consciousness. (he not only shows what new york folks look like, but how they actually live, mixing harshness and lyricism.) that's the subversion. this video questions what all the others say is fly, def or cool by showing that hipster perspective to be limited; simply sexy rather than shocking; and laughable instead of tragic. "we're trying to show the artistry side of hiphop," jay-z told a reporter. "i just really wanted [mark] to shoot like where i'm from in brooklyn and shoot the hood, but shoot it like art, not just shoot a bunch of dudes or a bunch of cars."

"...as romanek's images keep coming at you—pulsing to producer rick rubin's sullen, reverberating beat—they fall into line as maybe the truest-ever hiphop portrait of new york life. from the marcy projects to a church in brooklyn, it's a visual parade of around-the-corner confrontations, whimsical children, lost adults, desperate hedonism—the things most hiphop videos treat blithely. no bling-bling allowed. romanek never pauses for condescension, but a couple shots that dolly into a funeral home, then a coffin, are appropriately stunning. only the inevitability of death impedes on the velocity of life..."

Director MARK ROMANEK can be reached at:
http://www.markromanek.com

You can also see the director's cut of the Jay-Z "99 Problems" music video at http://www.markromanek.com

NOTE: In the mid-90's (not sure of year, perhaps 1995?) Critic Armond White devoted an entire music video presentation to the work of Director/Filmmaker MARK ROMANEK, director of this music video.

Critic Armond White can be reached courtesy of the weekly newspaper The New York Press

http://www.nypress.com

or the newsletter First of the Month

http://www.firstofthemonth.org

Category: Music

Tags:

Armond White Jay Mark Romanek 99 Problems American Gangster Gangsta Hip-Hop Rap Rock Rick Rubin Vincent Gallo Pop

More From: 1Wowza

Play All Stop Autoplaying | Play Next

QuickList(0)

Clear | Save

3 ratings

8,093 views

Favorite

Playlists

Flag

Want to add to Favorites? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to add to Playlists? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Want to flag a video? Sign In or Sign Up now!

Download This Song:

iTunes

AmazonMP3

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (0)

This video has no Responses. Be the first to Post a Video Response.

Text Comments (3) Options

drehot118 (1 year ago) Show Hide

-1

Marked as spam

i have a lot of questions
1. who is this guy
2. wth is wrong with his mouth
3. what is he talking about
4. why is he talking who cares
5. why bring up such an old video he shoulda did it years ago.
6. when is he gonna get a life?

thanks

1Wowza (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

he DID do this years ago. This clip is dated july of 2005.

drehot118 (1 year ago) Show Hide

-1

Marked as spam

ohhh ok. i noticed that after i posted the comment. but idk critics held conferences to rag on other people..and you went?? i mean he talks about new york ghetto life but its art. Jay-z said in his videos are like makin movies. they are powerful as you can see.

1Wowza (1 year ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Drehot118,

That was the point of his presenation. Critic Armond White was examining the art of this particular music video.

Tflow1 (2 years ago) Show Hide

Marked as spam

Check out Armond White's (and the crowd's) reaction after seeing this grand vision.

After the video, Armond White makes insightful comments on the filmmaking. Go head man!

Showing 3 of 3 comments

Show More Comments

View All 3 comments

Would you like to comment?

Join YouTube for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.

YouTube	Programs	Help	Policy	Discover
Contact Us	Advertising	Get Help	Privacy Policy	YouTube on Your Phone
YouTube Store	Developers	YouTube Handbook	Terms of Service	YouTube on Your Site
Press Room	Partnerships	Community Help Forums	Copyright Notices	YouTube on Your TV
Business Blog	Content Management	Safety Center	Community Guidelines	YouTube RSS Feeds
YouTube Blog		Creator's Corner		TestTube

Add YouTube to your Google homepage

Current Location: Germany Show locations

7-28-05 (Part 7) Armond White on Jay Z "99 Problems"

More From: 1Wowza

QuickList(0)

Related Videos

Statistics & Data

Video Responses (0)

Text Comments (3) Options

Would you like to comment?